Where do you find your ecstasy?

To me a living food diet isn't a dogma or a religion. It really is about feeling really GOOD, in my body, mind and spirit. If I am not feeling intrinsically good about myself and my life, I see this is a message from existence that I need to make change. As I have previously shared in this blog in my early years I used drugs to feel good. Unfortunately (or fortunately) drugs didn't do it. The higher I flew the harder I fell. And fall I did! Then at the age of 23 I turned to spirituality, meditation, therapy all of which gave me experiences of feeling good naturally without the come down of drugs.

In all of my exploration I have discovered that almost nothing takes me to bliss like dancing! Many indigenous and ancient societies have known the secrets of ecstatic dance to experience the divine and expanded states of consciousness. With our busy and driven 21st century lifestyles many of us seem to have lost touch with the sacred and dance has become something we do in nightclubs or parties intoxicated on drugs or alcohol.

Around 18 months ago I was so happy to discover a dance class/event called 5 rhythms held at the Byron Bay scout hall every Friday night. This class involves no religion, no drugs, alcohol, cigarettes or dance steps, no talking. It simply involves letting your body move very freely and naturally through a series of 5 distinct stages. 5 rhythms was brought into being by a pioneering American dance teacher Gabrielle Roth who teaches dance as a means to connect with the divine. Here is a short video of Gabrielle explaining the 5 Rhythms.

During the class I just let my body move exactly as I feel. To begin with I can be a little self conscious and then at some point my body takes over and I am taken by the music and the dance. I can't express in words how liberating it is to move and express whatever I am feeling without my everyday masks on. To experience this level of wildness is real ecstasy! The class goes for 2.5 hours and it is both a meditation and an amazing work out all in one.

The Byron Bay class is facilitated by the lovely Deva Nandan, an accredited 5 rhythms teacher. When I began going there were 8 to 15 regular dancers, last nights class had 65 pulsing, sweating bodies. This is something worth experiencing! If you live near Byron Bay or are visiting drop in for a dance - you can find out more by contacting Deva Nandan on 02 6684 4176 / 0431 035271 or 5rhythmsdance@gmail.com She also holds classes in Brisbane.

If you live in Melbourne you can contact Meredith who holds regular classes in Fitzroy on 0408 881 557 For those of you who live in other parts of the planet you can visit the 5 rhythms website to see where the closest class to you is happening .

When I can't make it to classes I like to put on music at home and dance with Runi. By the way Runi and I met at a 5 Rhythms class, but that's another story we will share in another blog.

We keep hearing how much many of you like the photos, so here are a few more we would like to share with you. Top right photo - Anand in a playful mood! 2nd from top right photo - Goddess at the kitchen sink (Runi straining green juice through a nut milk bag - a technique we learnt from Mr Matt Monarch) 3rd from top right photo - a view of Mt Warning from on our 6km morning jog. 4th from the top right photo Anand's breakfast 2 huge mangoes, a big handful of goji berries, 2 TBS maca powder and 2 TBS bee pollen - YUM!!! (I was having a day off green smoothies) Top Left photo - My favourite place to shop - a wet Byron bay farmers market. Bottom left photo our new automatic sprouting machine - this is sooo cool. Just put in your seeds, fill with water and it does the rest - perfect sprouts!! We will soon have these for sale at www.rawpower.com.au Bottom centre photo - what's "not cooking". A few dehydrated delights - flax/buckwheat/sunflower crackers, dried bananas and mangoes, and sweet potato chips! If you would like to be notified by email whenever we update our blog, just visit www.rawpower.com.au and fill in the blog subscription form on the right hand side.

Love, peace, ecstasy and deliciously good health
Anand